At Clarion, in the USA and loving it
Life has been an amazing and frantic. Since last I wrote I’ve reached the United States unpacked in a big rush in Portland (turning a rather nice basement into a cosy home) and then zoomed down to San Diego.
I’m in the third week of Clarion Writer’s Workshop, the bees knees of creative development. I’m working with really talented people to make our work shine and it is just fantastic. Week 1 was Holly Black (of Spiderwick Chronicles fame), week 2 Larissa Lai (When Fox is a Thousand & Saltfish Girl) and we’ve just started working with Robert Crais (Elvis Cole novels fame, crime/mystery books and used to write for top TV shows).
Robert Crais is a Clarion graduate, as is Kim Stanley Robinson who will be teaching us next week.
Sleeping 5 hours a night, working like a dog and loving it. Must dash, I’m starving and class starts at 8am.
2 thoughts on “At Clarion, in the USA and loving it”
Hi Liz,
The masochist in me says that if you’re loving Clarion, you may not be doing it right. Wait till savage week five, which I think you should be going through right about now, when the sleep deprivation kicks in and the exceess of cofee and/or dexies start altering your personality.
Wait, have I said too much?
Anyway, welcome to the solidarity of suffering that is the Clarion club.
For me, it was the best time of my life — but only well /after/ it actually ended.
Thanks Jason,
The sleep deprivation is pretty extreme for me right now. I’ve did Comicon this weekend on top of Clarion!
I push through pain every day, but it feels like a very clean, concentrated thing. It’s a peaceful kind of pain, like swimming on a beach with unpredictable waves, sometimes I surf the wave and it’s awesome, sometimes I dive under and avoid it, sometimes it crashes around me and sometimes I am dumped in a churning washing machine. But it’s clean, me and the waves, and it makes me a better swimmer.